Printer stands are known which employ a basically box-like base on which a computer printer is placed during normal operation. The printer used with such stands is typically of the relatively small, desk-top type commonly employed with personal computers, which is normally fed from a packet of fanned computer print-out paper, and which produces print-out copy in a continuous strip readily foldable into a fanned packet like that from which the printer is fed.
Normally the printer in such case is fed with its supply of print-out paper at its lower rear end, or through the middle of its bottom, and to permit this the stand may be provided with two openings in its top, one near its center and one near its rear, through which the supply paper can move freely into the printer from a pile of paper stock stored below the printer. The print-out paper normally emerges from the printer at its top and is fed upward and rearwardly of the printer.
Commonly, there is provided some type of print-out catcher, such as a simple horizontal box or tray on the desk behind the printer, for receiving and accumulating the printout paper from the printer. A variety of configurations and locations for such print-out catchers are known in the prior art. Some are actually located under the printer, for example below the desk top, and the print-out paper fed downward along a circuitous path for accumulation therein; in cases a print-out catcher in the form of a mesh basket extends horizontally outwardlly from the back of the printer.
It is also known to use a catcher in the form of a slanted mesh-type basket, designed to be removably secured to the top rear surface of the base so as to extend upwardly and backwardly from the printer, in which the print-out paper is collected as it emerges from the printer. This configuration of basket tends to conserve space behind the printer, and places the print-out paper in a somewhat upright position so that it can easily be scanned and easily reached to handle it or to check through it, for example.
One form of such upwardly angled mesh basket is designed to be mounted to the top rear of the base member by means of a pair of rods, suitably formed by extensions of the mesh of the basket, which protrude forwardly near each side of the basket so that they can be simultansouely slid through a pair of corresponding holes in the rear of the top portion of the base member. The holes may be sufficiently larger than the rods so that, when the basket is released from manual support, it pivots slightly downwardly from the vertical under gravity until the rods in the holes prevent further motion. The basket is removed, when desired, by pulling the basket upwardlY and rearwardly to slide the rods out of the holes, thereby providing access to the rear of the printer.
One drawback of such a catcher arrangement is that it is quite expensive to fabricate. It is normally made of relatively heavy rod stock, typically chromium-plated, with many welds or other forms of attachments of the various rods to each other to form a suitable mesh for confining the print-out paper when it falls into the basket, and using rod stock sufficiently thick that it will provide the necessary strength for effectively cantilevering the weight of the basket and its paper contents outwardly and rearwardly from the above-mentioned pair of holes in the top of the base.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a new and useful print-out paper catcher, and a new and useful combination printer support base and paper catcher, which are simpler and less expensive to fabricate than previously-known apparatus providing comparable performance.
Another object is to provide such a combination catcher and support base in which the catcher is easy to mount and demount from the base, and yet is strong and unlikely to deform during use.
A further object is to provide such a catcher which can be made by performing simple cutting and bending operations on a single piece of sheet metal.